1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to databases and, more particularly, to optimization of database queries.
2. Description of the Background Art
Databases traditionally operate on data stored in tables through the use of queries. Queries may result in the performance of various calculations on the data in the database, such as sorting the data, grouping it, and comparing it. In order to perform these calculations, it is often necessary to create temporary data structures, such as sort or hash objects.
When performing calculations on sets of data where a table column is of a very large data type, data of that data type is propagated through the temporary data structures, increasing their size and consuming memory. Furthermore, operations performed on large data types may consume large amounts of processing resources given the amount of data that must be considered.
Accordingly, what is desired is an effective means for optimizing database queries on intensive space- and processor-consuming data types.